Research: Genetics may Play a Part in Hispanic Obesity

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Researchers are now reporting that they have identified a protease (protein) responsible for weight gain and the one that can inhibit fat generation, reports The Latin Times.

The researchers from Mexico and Spain — who hail from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), the National Institute of Genomic Medicine (IMEGEN) and Landsteiner Scientific Laboratory with the Spanish subsidiary Neopharm Obesity — have disclosed that the new information will help them create an effective drug to fight obesity in target populations.

“Obesity is one of the major problems that we will ‘attack’ with the use of genomic medicine,” said Francisco Kuri Brena, director of new developments from the laboratory. “There are already companies developing medicines for the Caucasian population, we focusing the study to Latinos.”

Researchers will test the protein’s effectiveness in both animal and human subjects. The research discusses the issue that the Mexican population’s genome is unique from Caucasian populations, making many drugs ineffective for the Hispanic population.

“Estimated energy, protein, cholesterol, dietary fiber, and vitamin E intakes were significantly higher in plausible reporters than implausible,” write the authors in their study. “There was a significant difference between the proportions of plausible vs implausible reporters meeting recommendations for several nutrients, with a larger proportion of plausible reporters meeting recommendations. Further research related to misreporting in Hispanic populations is warranted to explore the causes and effects of misreporting in studies measuring dietary intake, as well as actions to be taken to prevent or account for this issue.”